Last season, the Prince George Spruce Kings' dream season ended three wins short of a championship and the Wenatchee Wild weren't sharing any of the spoils of victory.
The Wild hoisted the Fred Page Cup Trophy as B.C. Hockey League champions, zooming to the top of the charts in only their third season in the league, becoming the first American-based team to win it since 1979.
Losing that five-game final series still doesn't sit well with the Spruce Kings, especially the 14 players who returned to this year's team, and Ben Poisson was one of them. He came back for Game 4 of the Wenatchee series after missing two months with a ruptured spleen and helped the Kings force Game 5 with a win at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Now the 20-year-old Poisson is captain of the Kings, the top-line centre, and plans on giving the Wild a rude reception when the teams take to the ice tonight at RMCA in their first of two regular-season meetings in 2018-19.
"Obviously everyone here is excited to play them, even the guys who haven't played them before and are new to the team, they know what we went through last year against them," said Poisson. "We played as hard as we could and ended up coming a couple games short and we're going to try to get a little redemption on them here. Obviously the goal for us is to win a championship."
Wild head coach Bliss Littler has eight returnees to work with, including forwards Lucas Sowder (a Minnesota State Mankato recruit), Murphy Stratton (University of North Dakota), and Penticton natives Nathan Iannone and Josh Arnold. Chad Sasaki, Jacob Modry and Drake Usher are back on the Wild blueline and 20-year-old goalie Austin Park was the go-to guy in net for Wenatchee last season.
Among the four Canadians on this year's Wild roster are two from Sherbrooke, Que., who both answer to the name Christophe - Tellier and Fillion. Both are 18-year-olds and both are in the top-10 in league scoring. Tellier has five goals and 12 points in nine games, with Fillion right behind with 11 points, including seven goals. Sowder (1-10-11 in nine games) is averaging better than a point per game and another Wild forward to watch is newcomer Matt Gosiewski, a six-foot-four, 210-pound native of Willton, Conn., who ranks 19th in the scoring race (5-5-10).
"They're a different team this year, they're a lot bigger and with us being a faster team we can kind of expose them," said Poisson. "They were a fast team last year but they've kind of changed their structure a bit."
The teams have a bit of history dating back to the Wild's second season in which they owned the Spruce Kings as divisional opponents, winning all seven regular-season games by a combined score of 46-13. But in the playoffs, the Kings came close to pushing the Wild to the limit in the first round after trailing three games to none in the series. A blown lead by the Kings late in the third period in Game 6 in Wenatchee was all that prevented Game 7.
Last year, reaching the final for the first time in their 22 BCHL seasons, the Spruce Kings set a new team playoff standard they will try to exceed next spring.
"Getting that close and coming up short was heartbreaking," said Kings right winger Patrick Cozzi. "Everyone on the team loved each other and this year it's looking like the same so far - we're building a lot of chemistry so we definitely want to take it to the next level and win it all.
"I think it's a rivalry between us (and the Wild), they're a good team and I think we're a better team. We've been preparing all week for them and it's just going to be a really good game - two of the top teams in the league going at it. I think we just have to stick to our systems and trust we're going to get the job done."
In the only other meeting between the teams this season, the Wild hosts the Spruce Kings in Wenatchee on Oct. 25.
Cozzi is playing on a line with Dustin Manz and rookie Nicholas Poisson and ranks third in team scoring with two goals and five assists in eight games. The speedy Cozzi is a key component on penalty kills, usually working alongside Manz. Through eight games the Spruce Kings' penalty killers have an unspectacular 78.1 per cent success rate (13th in a 17-team league) but their power play has been clicking well at 23.1 per cent (fourth-best in the BCHL).
The Wild is part of a three-team logjam atop the Interior Division, tied with the first-place Merritt Centennials and third-place West Kelowna Warriors, each with 5-4-0-0 records.
Wenatchee played all nine of its games in September on the road and got off to a 4-1 start but has lost three of its last four games. Like the Spruce Kings, the Wild played three games last week, starting with a 5-2 loss in West Kelowna. On the weekend, Wenatchee dropped a 2-0 decision in Vernon, then beat the Smoke Eaters 5-2 in Trail.
"I think they are still building, just because they are a bit younger and we need to use our experience and jump on them early in the game, said Kings head coach Adam Maglio. "We want to take their time and space away and it helps with our rink size (being 10 feet shorter than most rinks) so we need to keep pressure on the puck all game.
"We made some mistakes and mental errors (last weekend) and I think it's a good time for that to happen. We probably needed that to rectify some of the stuff that we were weak in previously."
The Spruce Kings (6-2-0-1) rank third in the Mainland Division, one point behind Chilliwack and Coquitlam (both 7-3-0-0) with a game in hand. In their first road trip, other than the BCHL Showcase in Chilliwack, the Spruce Kings earned three of a possible six points. They started their three-game, three-day journey with a 3-2 shootout loss in Surrey, beat Langley 4-3 and lost 3-1 in Coquitlam.
"Road trips are always hard, especially the first one," said Ben Poisson, who ended a six-game scoring drought with a hat-trick effort, scoring three times on the power play, including the winner Saturday in Langley. "It's different hockey, you're playing in a different building and your timing is all messed up and you can't have the same routine. We took a bit of time to adjust to it and by the time we got to the third game we ran out of gas, physically and mentally."
The Kings have another tough test on home ice in store Friday night when they take on the Island Divison-leading Victoria Grizzlies. The Grizzlies will be bringing forward Alex Newhook, a 17-year-old from Newfoundland touted as a potential top-three overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft. He had 66 points as a rookie last season despite missing 15 games. He was second in BCHL scoring when he broke his wrist in a game Feb. 10.
The Spruce Kings placed D Brennan Malgunas (illness) on the 30-game injured reserve list. To fill in for Malgunas the Kings this week acquired D Jason Chu, 17, from the Surrey Eagles in a deal for futures. Kings F Spencer Chapman (hamstring) won't play this weekend.
Maglio said Logan Neaton will get the start in goal tonight. Game time is 7 p.m.
